Daniel and his father dug and dug. Suddenly they saw the plane lying in a hole eight meters down.

It was a school assignment that led to the discovery of a German aircraft of WW2 in a field in the North Jutland town Birkelse.

In the wreckage are also remains of bones - probably from the pilot.

Farmer Klaus Kristiansen says to DR P4 Nordjylland that his grandfather many years ago told me that a German plane crashed in a field behind the farm during WW2.

Also read: Historian for rare fly-fund: German aircraft were scrapped

- When my son Daniel, then recently was commissioned to write about WW2, I joked to him that he could go up and try to find the plane that supposedly crashed up on the field.

VIDEO Daniel and his father knew there was an aircraft in the area. The first finds were small flyfragmenter.
Went off with metal detector

No sooner said than done. Father and son went up there with a metal detector. Again, for fun, for his grandfather had also told that the Germans after the crash blocked the area and removed the crashed aircraft.

- But it could be fun if we could find some small things, says Klaus Kristiansen.

Father and son found also some small debris and then they got a taste.

- We tried gently to dig with a backhoe. Then came several parts forward. This weekend we tried then to dig a little deeper and the further down we get, the more small parts of the plane we found.

We eventually found was father and son almost entire engine block. When they also found bone fragments, the situation changed.

It was pretty wild to find bones and spine from the dead pilot, says Daniel Kristensen.

VIDEO It was pretty wild to find bone fragments from the dead German in the plane, says Daniel.
Found bone fragments and contacted authorities

- We stop digging work and contacts the authorities to be contacted. Therefore, police and bomberyddere now on site and we have also been told that there will be people from the German Embassy up here. We took the documents and papers in the pocket of some clothes. Those we have been told to freeze down so that nothing happens to them, says Klaus Kristiansen.

Read also: Fly from World War II with the death of the pilot found

It comes very back of him that he has been able to find so much for the Germans were well known to thoroughly clean up after themselves.

- But fortunately my son because now got something to write about in his task. Today he has good enough been free from school so he can follow the police and bomberyddernes work. But it's exciting for us all.

The discovery of the plane - a fighter plane type Messerschmidt Bf 109 - was made on a complete plan pasture with grazing cows.

- We have grated on for 20-30 years and not been aware that it hid a secret, says Klaus Kristiansen.

Parts of the German plane that was found in a field near Birkelse (Photo: charlotte Ostertag)

Reminds me of a story from my youth. When we were children my Grandfather told us of a Hawker Hurricane that crashed during the battle of britain in one of the peatfields adjacent to ours. The pilot baled out safely but due to it being peat the plane sank in very deep. The RAF boys came a salvaged the guns but that was all.

My brother and i spent many afternoons searching around for any debris that may have been dug up in the subsequent years. We never did find anything._________________1937 Ford 7w
1937 Hillman 80
1946 ERF C.I.5
1947 Hillman Minx
1955 Hillman Minx Mk8
1950 Commer R541